The Five Consulting Superpowers: Curiosity Playbook

This Playbook is part of our SCALE framework series - you can read more about it here!

You know the scene:

• Everyone’s talking, but no one’s really engaging.
• The team debates timelines and outputs, yet no one stops to ask, “What are we missing?”
• Silence follows every tricky question. The room feels tidy, but not alive.
• People are nodding, not contributing.

Curiosity helps you move past these blockers. When problems feel vague or conversations stall, it pushes you to ask sharper questions and pay closer attention.

We created a Curiosity Playbook you can deploy on your current projects immediately. We built this because we wish someone had handed it to us 10 years ago.

This Playbook includes the practical pieces of advice you really need - no fluff, just the tools to deliver clarity under pressure:

• Consulting-tuned AI prompt to help you sharpen your language and improve clarity, precision and tone.
• A cue card for the LSP method (Listen, Summarise, Probe), a technique for making your curiosity useful in real time.
• Factsheets + Upskilling Journeys for precision in language, active listening and going with the flow, so you know what “good” looks like and how to climb.

The Playbook includes a BONUS Curiosity wheel with EIGHT questioning styles and examples, to help you pick the best approach based on whether you need to clarify facts, expand possibilities or provoke action.

Time to value: 30–60 minutes. Just read the sections that are most relevant to you, start playing with the resources and save the upskilling journeys for later reflection or your next performance review.

Who Can Benefit From Our Playbook

Our tips, though derived from consulting, can be applied by anyone who is expected to operate in high-stakes, ambiguous situations.

You might be a strategist, a product lead, an internal advisor or a chief of staff. You might be mid-career and looking to sharpen your edge, or just getting started and wondering why everyone else seems to “get it” already.

This product is a collaboration between Andrea Chiarelli and Cécile. Check us out on Substack and subscribe to our newsletters to keep in touch and share your feedback.